Client laptop dilemma - roll back hard drive upgrade?

[MrMarkyMark]

Lots of organisations actually look at the data on laptops people hand back. If the laptop is completely clean it is suspicious - so just leave the SSD in it with their data on it to avoid having to do more explaining than you need to.

This +1

Sorry, I cant believe you have been so stupid, don't get hung for "stealing" company data too.

[Hobosapien]

This +1

Sorry, I cant believe you have been so stupid, don't get hung for "stealing" company data too.

So the safest thing is to destroy all trace of the laptop apart from a smouldering pile of ash. Maybe they'll do that for me by pushing out a W10 upgrade.

[MrMarkyMark]

FTFY

So the safest thing is to destroy all trace of the laptop apart from a smouldering pile of ash, after reporting it stolen.

[northernladuk]

FTFY

Unless you are at Dwp/MOD etc in which case giving them the smouldering ash would be a better bet. Stolen laptops hit the news in places like that.

[Hobosapien]

Unless you are at Dwp/MOD etc in which case giving them the smouldering ash would be a better bet. Stolen laptops hit the news in places like that.

Yes this is already starting to feel like the start of a comedy farce script. No need to throw in some gallows humour too by me getting lynched.

I'm optimistic that I will avoid the worst case scenarios as they've been experimenting with bring your own devices for iPads/smartphones, so they aren't that restrictive about what happens to their data as far as kit goes, which is obviously the more serious potential issue than some ropy old laptop not still being base spec.

[Intel]

I wonder at what point does client kit become BYOD when you upgrade it constantly....

On a separate point AYSYCOTBAC? You're billing on a day rate and you paid out of your own pocket to upgrade client kit to get work done quicker?

I'd be after the slowest spinning rust I could get my hands on and count the pounds ticking over whilst the data mooched along.....

[Boo]

...put in the old HDD and leave it several years of windows updates out of date...

Just do this ffs, you're way overthinking this.

Boo

[Hobosapien]

I wonder at what point does client kit become BYOD when you upgrade it constantly....

On a separate point AYSYCOTBAC? You're billing on a day rate and you paid out of your own pocket to upgrade client kit to get work done quicker?

I'd be after the slowest spinning rust I could get my hands on and count the pounds ticking over whilst the data mooched along.....

I did originally wonder about creating a VM of their laptop and running it inside my own, but something about the MAC address (or whatever it is that is set in stone in hardware) not being on their white list for connecting to their network would stop anything not officially BYOD from working, and so far it's all the poncy kit they're looking at BYOD for not proper work horse stuff like one's own super duper laptop.

The frustration of waiting for apps to load or do stuff when it's thrashing the disk quickly overcomes the desire to drag things out as far as invoicing goes. Some forms of torture are less frog boiling and more nail pulling.

[Hobosapien]

Just do this ffs, you're way overthinking this.

Boo

I'm just wary it's not that simple and not going to be obvious that something's amiss if there's other stuff not up to date or installed. Opening the can of worms others have rightly pointed out about raising client's concerns about data.

[malvolio]

Incidentally, BYOD does not mean you can plug in any old POS to their network. They may not tell you, about it but they will be monitoring your usage and your device, the handling software is a lot smarter than you may think and their bits will be isolated from your bits (if you see what I mean).

Unless your client is totally stupid and/or naïve of course. I wouldn't bet the farm on that though.